 Hello, Peter. Hi, Robin. Peter, can you tell me what is fear-based learning? Robin, fear-based learning is quite different from what we would call thriving learning, and in the sec we'll also discuss surface and deep learning. The major difference between fear-based learning and what we refer to as thriving learning is that fear-based learning is a very powerful learning system. It's a learning system that activates very quickly in the brain and it has huge benefits short-term. Long-term it may come with some consequences. Now let me explain this to you when we look at the brain. If we open the brain and have a look at the side section of the brain, the deeper parts of the brain seems to develop earlier than the frontal parts of the brain, which means the learning systems in the deeper parts of the brain are much more powerful than the learning systems in the frontal parts of the brain. This part is what we refer to as the executive brain. This part is what we refer to as the survival brain. Fear-based learning, as you can guess, has very close links to the survival brain, which means we learn something exceptionally quickly when fear is activated in order to survive. So how does that affect long-term learning, Peter? If you learn it very quickly. Now learning that happens very quickly is also activated in the brain in a very profound way and it can inhibit more effective long-term learning. Now to explain the difference between the two, say for example, you walk across a road, you notice a car is racing towards you, the fear centers in the brain immediately kicks in and warns us to get out of the way. You jump out of the way and the brain goes, whoa, I need to respond quickly, otherwise I may not survive. That's a short, very quick, fear-based learning activation. Long-term learning means we need to learn what is the speed of a car, what's the trajectory that we cross a road, what's the maths that sits behind this, how can you calculate when is a safe distance. But you need a lot of time and a lot of advanced neural networks to learn those mathematical equations, et cetera. Could be highly beneficial long-term to project how long a person needs to cross a road, et cetera. However, the fear-based learning just go jump, get out of the way. It's a quick learning, but not a very smart learning. If we want to develop learning for our students, for example, we would like to develop a different kind of learning. So another example of fear-based learning is a threat. You say to a student, unless you learn this, these will be the terrible consequences. Fear-based learning will enhance that learning, but the threat tells us that we tend to avoid ongoing learning. So the detriment of fear-based learning is the benefit of survival, but the not-so-helpful activation of smart systems. So with regard to school, students in schools and so forth, Peter, I think I hear you saying that we need to be aware of fear-based learning, but in the long run, fear-based learning will not help students to learn effectively. Is that what you're saying? So if we're talking about fear-based learning in classroom-type situations, then it's more a surface-type learning, would that be right, as opposed to more of a deep-type learning that thriving learning would involve? That's a really good question, and that's a huge theoretical issue. Is there a difference between so-called deep learning and surface learning? Are there benefits in each of these? The research show that there are big benefits in surface learning. However, surface learning is a linear process, which is also quite often a very small neural process. Deep learning means we add neural connections so that we can see the consequences, the benefits, apply in different environments, etc. That's more of an extensive neural network rather than a simple neural network. So surface learning is quite often the first line of learning, but from there, we need to extend this into more extensive neural networks. That's what we refer to as deep learning or deep learning in comparison to surface learning. So, Peter, in classrooms, I'm just trying to get some clarification. We do have students, as you've acknowledged, who do experience a certain level of fear around certain types of subjects, for example, maths. They have high anxiety levels around maths. It seems to me that teachers need to have some strategies to be able to deal with students who are undergoing that level of fear. Are you able to sort of recommend something or suggest something to teachers that they could think about? That's a very good question, and we'll probably also need to discuss the concept of cognitive load because it's on some levels linked to this and we'll probably get to this a bit later. But there are certainly some strategies. Now, in order to understand what we can do, it may be helpful to take a step back and ask ourselves what happens in the brain when we experience stress? What we notice in the brain is that stress activates neural activity. So we see the brain gets active when there's some stress. Stress, basically, is another word for the release of some neurochemicals, changes in the ion levels, brain cells start to fire, there's an electrical activation that happens, and as a result of this, the brain gets busy. So stress is not necessarily a bad thing. However, there is some helpful stress, and there seems to be some stress that's not all that helpful. We're even getting close to a point where we can see on imaging what kind of stress is beneficial and what kind of stress operates in a different direction. Now, let's go back to what we've just discussed in terms of fear-based learning. And we can probably start to connect the point. The dots connect, if we think about fear-based learning as a level of stress that has just one outcome, and that is, how can I protect myself from not getting injured, not getting damaged, not experience a bad consequence, etc. So it's a learning in order to ensure my survival, or at least on some levels please the teacher, rather than maximise my own benefit. That kind of learning is a small learning activation, and stress in that small loop is linked to some neurochemicals. We don't need to go into the detail of this. It's a regulation of some norepinephrine, too much stress hormones like cortisol gets released, which eventually may inhibit the facilitation of serotonin that helps the frontal parts of the brain. In educational terms it means we need to activate a learning that helps the entire smart part of the brain, this section here, the smarter section, the prefrontal cortex, to activate. If we can activate this, we activate a new connections in the brain. If we only activate this part of the brain, we facilitate a sense of safety, but no sense of thriving. So to answer the question from a slightly different perspective, maximising learning is a learning that needs to relax this part of the brain, and then this part starts to open up. When we relax, we learn really well. When we have fun, we learn really well. So Peter, if teachers want to know how to activate the frontal part of the brain, or the executive part where students take control and manage their own learning, what are some of the strategies that they can engage in to help that? The strategies are quite revolutionary, and on some levels, which always annoys me a little bit, is when I shared it with my Nana, she said, I knew that. And on some levels we realised what we knew many years ago, now science tends to demonstrate this is exactly what we need. So what are the strategies? First of all, neuroscience tells us, unless we feel safe, we can't develop thriving learning. Unless we are relaxed and we can ask critical questions and say, I don't understand this, explain this again. What do you mean by this? People will only observe, try to remember the bare minimum, not to get in trouble, and that kind of learning inhibits thriving learning. So deep learning gets inhibited when survival is at stake, when we feel threatened or unsafe. So what does this mean for us in the classroom? Our students need to feel safe. They need to feel comfortable in the learning environment. Our pedagogy, the way that we engage, need to be in such a way that students want to feel, I want to ask them questions. I have something that I've experienced at home and I want to share this. And that learning-engaging environment opens up frontal cortical systems. We get a huge activation of engagement rather than the classical pedagogy of a one-way intervention or a one-way facilitation of information. So strategy one, safety. Strategy two, we call this the fun effect. Research showed that the brain produces endorphins and dopamine when we experience some fun. And that fun effect enhance learning. Sadly, dopamine is also reproduced when we don't feel safe. And that means it strengthens fear-based learning. So it's not a smart chemical that only goes this way or that way. It can operate in any of the two directions. And as a result of this, we may see that students become more and more withdrawn or more and more engaged. And you see the difference over the time span of a student's life. It starts with the same motivation. It can go in both directions. So the fun effect helps students to engage and we develop thriving students. Safety, having some fun. And then, and we'll talk about this, how to enhance deep learning.